The Black Coral (Percico/Pernico)

Chapter Four: Eyes as Deep as the Ocean

Nico closed his eyes as he settled down on his barrack under his scratchy blanket. He didn't want to be tired, but it had been a long day of helping the crew with the ship, such as fixing the sails. Leo had been a great help with them, since he was good with tools, which Nico had no idea that he was. Nico supposed that people learn new things every day.

The weather, unlike the night before, was calm and quiet; Nico could hear the waves gently brushing against the sides of the ship, and there was no wind to be heard. He supposed that was improvement from the thunder and the stormy currents that rocked the ship back and forth, making the prince feel queasy.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes once more; it had been a long day, and he knew it was going to be an even more eventful day the next. He pulled the rough blanket up to his chest and rolled over to his side, in fear of falling out of the barrack.

With a yawn, he slung his arm lazily over the blanket, involuntarily exhausted. But, even in his soporific state, his mind escaped to outside of the ship, wondering what lied beyond where they were sailing. He suspected the destination of the ship was drawing near, his freedom coming to a close, nearer and nearer by the second.

No longer tired, the now restless prince crept out of his barrack and tiptoed up the stairs and out of the sleeping quarters, carefully trying not to step on any creaky floorboards and wake anyone up. He did step on a few noisy boards, but, fortunately, the men were either heavy sleepers, or they must have worked very hard today. Nico agreed upon the former.

As he stepped onto the main deck, the night breeze gently kissed his skin, making him feel calmer instantly. It also made him forget about his future, which was exactly what he wanted. That was the wind's influence over him: to make him feel tranquil and swipe the painful thoughts of the inevitable away from his mind. Most of all, it made him feel free, that he was away from everyone and everything that tried to force him into things, that he finally could live his own life, write it page by page, rather than following it by how the book instructed him to.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping, son?" Nico recognized the voice of the sailor that he had conversed with a couple of days ago.

"I'm tired, yet I'm restless, if you can comprehend the meaning," Nico responded, leaning against the railing once again.

"You cannot sleep?" the man asked, confused. "Hadn't we labored you hard enough?"

"Physically, I'm tired, but my mind is not," the prince explained. "My mind desires to wander, although it recognizes my exhaustion."

"I would offer you some rum, but you are not yet old enough, and you're royalty. Your father would request for my neck to be tied in a noose," the man joked.

"No, thank you," was Nico's reply.

His attention got yanked away once again by the sea, which seemed to want to beckon the young boy towards it, to pull him in and envelop him with the salty waves until he hadn't a breath left. However, it didn't. That was one of the reasons Nico was fascinated by it.

The sparkling, dark blue surface didn't look like it held much, but in the depths, it held more than Nico could ever imagine, and he knew that fact quite well. The sea, where the most adventure takes place, yet it always slipped out of Nico's fingers, leaving only a single trace that it was there in the first place. He wished he could hold onto it, so that it could never leave, and that Nico could be happy, living a life full of excitement and intriguing tales that he could tell for hours on end. Oh, how he wished.

After a moment of observing the mysterious surface of the shimmering ocean, illuminated by the moonlight like a polished, flat, dark blue crystal, he saw a shape appear upon the horizon. A dark shape that gradually got larger and larger as if it was slowly approaching their small cargo ship. Nico squinted in the darkness at the shape as it got closer. Soon, it was near enough that he saw a flag waving in the wind, but it was too dark to see the design.